‘Where are the babies, Mitch?’: McConnell pursued from restaurant by angry crowd

A group of Democratic Socialists and other angry protesters pursued Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) through a restaurant parking lot on Saturday, berating him with a mixture of immigration rhetoric and personal insults — and at one point an apparent threat to visit his home.

The Louisville encounter was the second time in two weeks that McConnell's private life has been disrupted by a spontaneous protest — and it was the latest in a weeks-long series of confrontations between powerful Republicans and those eager to shame them on camera, wherever they are found.

“If the Leader comments on being called a fascist and a supporter of ICE by a small handful of extremist protesters then I will let you know,” McConnell’s spokesman, David Popp, wrote to The Washington Post after the incident.

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McConnell — who supports the Trump administration’s detention of families who illegally cross the border but opposed the president's short-lived policy of separating parents from their children — was having lunch Saturday at Bristol Bar & Grille, in his hometown.

As it happened, hundreds of people were protesting outside Louisville’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement Office, just a few miles from the restaurant. Among them were leaders of the local chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, whose national fame has been growing since one of its members upset the Democratic incumbent in a New York congressional primary last month.

At least half a dozen people, several with cameras, were waiting in front of the restaurant when McConnell walked out, with his checkered shirt tucked into his jeans and two dining companions at his side.

“Vote you out, vote you out!” the crowd began to chant.

“Where are the children?” one of them asked, not for the last time.

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The three men didn't stop or slow, or even look at the crowd, though someone shouted “Go home!”

As McConnell's party turned a corner into the parking lot, a woman with an ankle-length dress and a backpack tried to block their path. She walked a step ahead of the Senate’s top Republican, and the rest of the crowd followed close behind, still chanting and shouting.

“Where are the babies, Mitch?”

“Turtle head!”

The Democratic Socialists of Louisville told The Washington Post that three members were in the crowd, but said the group had nothing to do with the man who called the majority leader “turtle head” — and a few moments later shouted: “We know where you live, too, Mitch! We know where you live! Yeah! We know where you live, Mitch!”

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“This person is not a DSA member, nor do we know who he is or what he meant by that statement,” the chapter wrote in an email. “We believe it is a reference to peacefully protesting in front of McConnell’s house, which is a regular occurrence in Louisville. However, we cannot speak more to the comment because it did not come from our organization or our members.”

In any event, McConnell said nothing in reply; he simply climbed into the back seat of an SUV with a “Team Mitch” sticker on the window. The two other men (one of them a top state Republican, according to the Courier-Journal) got into the front, and the protesters could only shout at them as the engine fired up.

“Abolish ICE, abolish ICE!” they chanted.

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“No justice, no peace!”

“No comfort for fascists!” said the man who called McConnell a “turtle head.”

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“We did good, fellow citizens,” a man told the rest of the group as the Highlander backed out of its parking space.

And true enough, video of the impromptu protest would be seen by hundreds of thousands of people, make national news and be praised by those on the left who think Trump’s allies deserve no peaceful meals while hundreds of migrant children are still being held from their parents.

Good. More of this. Mitch McConnell should never have a single moment of public peace for the rest of his miserable life. He, more than anyone else in congress, is responsible for enabling the very worst of Trump's authoritarianism.https://t.co/SmQ0F0tNrh